Utah's Arches of Stone
BY JACK BREED
"
EYOND those mountains," said Harry
Goulding one evening as we watched
the sunset from the porch of his
Monument Valley trading post, "is a natural
arch as long as a football field!"
Harry was looking north toward the Blue
(Abajo) Mountains in southeastern Utah.
Beyond this range we could clearly see, 100
miles from us, the La Sal or "Salt" Mountains,
which served as a towering landmark for
Arches National Monument of Utah, to which
Harry was referring.
An arch that almost equals a football field
in length was worth investigating!
The next morning I climbed into the station
wagon and headed up the rough, dusty trail
that leads from Monument Valley* over the
San Juan River at Mexican Hat, past the
Goosenecks turn-off,t to the Utah towns of
Bluff, Blanding, and finally Monticello, at the
very base of the Blues (map, page 175).
From Monticello the snow-capped 13,089
foot peak of Mount Peale in the La Sals, 40
miles ahead, beckoned us to continue along
US Highway 160, which boasts a paved surface
for most of the journey. We wound through
a narrow gorge below the peaks and finally
burst forth into a broad valley, paralleled on
either side by brilliant red cliffs, that leads
to the Mormon town of Moab, Utah.
Center of a Scenic Wonderland
Moab, with a population of about a thou
sand, is the county seat for Grand County
and the center of an extensive sheep- and
cattle-grazing area for a little-known sector
of eastern Utah. The valley in which the
town is located was first settled in 1855. Con
tinuous trouble with the neighboring Piute
and Navajo Indians, however, prevented any
permanent settlement for nearly 25 years,
when in 1879 the town itself was established.
Moab has never grown large. Many of its
people are descended from the original settlers
of the region.
Most travelers pass right through Moab
and remember the place as a verdant farming
community sleeping amid a setting of brilliant
red cliffs. However, the speeding traveler is
really missing some of the most spectacular
scenery in the United States.
Behind the ruddy abutments of Moab Val
ley lies a veritable galaxy of natural wonders
-delicate arches, giant natural bridges, and
the deep canyons of the Green and Colorado
Rivers, climaxed by the startling vistas from
Dead Horse and Grand View Points.
Nestled against the slopes of the La Sal
Mountains are lovely lake and aspen glades
to tempt fisherman and hunter, lonely Castle
Valley, and awe-inspiring Fisher Towers,
which dwarf modern skyscrapers.
The most readily accessible attraction is the
maze of sand-blasted formations included in
Arches National Monument, which lies just
a few miles north and west of the town.$
Wagons Lowered by Rope to Valley
With Custodian Russell L. Mahan of the
National Park Service as guide, I set out
toward the Windows section early one morning
to study and photograph its geologic wonders
(Plates III, X, XII, XIII, and XVI). We
sped northwest on the paved highway up the
steep incline of Moab Canyon, following the
route of the old Mormon dugway (Plate XIV).
"Over here," said Russell, "you can see
where some early settlers lowered their wagons
over the rock. They had to dismantle them
and let them down piece by piece through
these clefts."
Paralleling the road in many places are
unusually regular steps cut into the rocks, and
on close examination we could still find the
marks worn by the old wagon wheels.
Near the top of the dugway, where the
highway bursts out of the red-rock canyon
into the open prairie, we passed the original
jumping-off place, a perpendicular ledge which
offered Mormon settlers their first real obstacle
in reaching the fertile valley beyond.
A few miles along on the prairie we turned
off to the right on an unobtrusive dirt road
that leads to the Windows section of the
Arches, nine driving miles away.
In the fall of 1936, Harry Goulding of
Monument Valley, in his specially equipped
car, managed to traverse the rugged sand
and rock of the Arches region and thus became
the first person to drive a car right into the
Arches. Soon afterward a bulldozer followed
Harry's tracks and made a passable trail.
Little improvement was done on this rough
road to the Windows section until recently.
Mahan, aided by members of the Highway
Department, has done much to make the way
* See "Flaming Cliffs of Monument Valley," by Lt.
Jack Breed, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, Octo
ber, 1945.
t See "Desert River Through Navajo Land," by
Alfred M. Bailey, in this issue of the NATIONAL GEO
GRAPHIC MAGAZINE.
$ See "Utah, Carved by Winds and Waters," by Leo
A. Borah, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, May,
1936.